Monday, 31 May 2010

Valverde - They can't even ban him properly!

Do you want the good news or the bad news?

Good news: Alejandro Valverde has finally been handed a worldwide ban to go alongside the ban he received in Italy last May. CAS upheld appeals by the UCI and WADA which essentially contended that the Spanish Cycling Federation should have instituted proceedings against him, instead of just the Italians, and that therefore his ban should be worldwide. As a result of this finding Valverde is suspended from all racing for two years dating from 1st Jan 2010. All of his results since then are annulled, all prize money is to be returned (don't hold your breath!) and the world rankings have been revised putting Cadel Evans in his rightful place at the top.

Bad News: Despite the fact that the Italian ban, which the UCI and WADA were trying to extend, was announced last May, all of Valverdes results between then and 1st Jan will stand. That leaves us with the farcical position that last years Vuelta was won by a banned rider! In other words CAS has said that the ban was justified but he was still racing and that's OK by them.

I suppose the best thing to taken from this is that even though the Italian ban was for two years from May he is now banned there until the end of 2011. Of course it's great news for Evans too and more especially for Slovakia's Simon Spilak (Lampre) who now becomes the winner of the Tour of Romandie.